Optimum cost design of reinforced concrete one-way ribbed slabs using CBO, PSO and democratic PSO algorithms

The main objective of the current study is to utilize the capabilities of recently developed meta-heuristic algorithms for structural cost optimization of a one-way reinforced concrete ribbed slab simply supported at both ends. Two of these new and simple optimization algorithms, known as colliding bodies optimization (CBO) and democratic particle swarm optimization (DPSO), and a renowned optimization algorithm, PSO, are presented to solve cost optimization of a concrete ribbed slab. Although PSO is a very well-known and commonly used optimization algorithm, democratic PSO is an improved version of particle swarm optimization method. In DPSO the emphasis is placed upon improving the premature convergence phenomenon which is believed to be one of defects of the original PSO. CBO utilizes simple formulation to find optimum values and does not need any internal parameter. Performance of these algorithms is compared with harmony search. The results illustrate the power of the CBO and effectiveness of improvements of DPSO method in the present optimization problem.